TrueTomHarley

As twisted as the trinity is, it is still the most thoughtful item presented here.

Sigh....I don’t follow @JW Insider. If I was going to follow anyone, it would be @Arauna—I like her insights even better—but I don’t follow her either. Stop it, Allen, just stop it. If I was going to use the same tactics as you or of those of your group, I would begin referring to her as your girlfriend, since you have liked her posts and she has commended some informational ones of yours. Enough! Look, she easily could be accused of “running ahead,” and “going beyond the things written”—not in the same areas that JWI does—she speculates on how things will turn out—but she is still open to the charge. She has just said that she is a Witness and proud of it, but “unconventional.” That is true with most here—possibly with all. Please do not tell me that you are typical. Did it ever occur to you disseminating obvious “fake news” is a good technique for discrediting the site that you so desperately want to see discredited? Taking this stuff seriously is what enshrines it.

This is not surprising. Nor is it especially uncommon. One of the elders in my region—I know him well—was essentially cast from the family when he did not assume his role as oilman heir. When I would travel with him in service and pass a gas station, sometimes I would exclaim: “Look, Jim—Texas tea!”* *A term for “oil”—originated by the American sit-com “The Beverly Hillbillies.” (also, I never use the real name of someone who is still alive—so “Jim” is not the real name—the sole exception being a retired circuit overseer from my first book. I forwarded to him the chapter in which he is mentioned, and he said “it didn’t make sense to him—I still think I have all my marbles.” So I fretted that I had used his actual name, and offered to replace it. But he said that he didn’t really care—I could do as I wanted. He is up there in his 90s, and still keeps the preaching schedule of a circuit overseer) Add this to @JW Insider‘s list of how this Internet forum can benefit the friends. Rubbing shoulders with the most determined & virulent opposers on the planet can put fine qualities to the test as can nothing else.

No, don’t @Melinda Mills (are YOU the owner?)—not yet. Let me answer Allen first. I may not get to till it tomorrow, though. Perhaps I can bump it up. If my meetings with Vic Vomidog, Dr Max “Ace” Inhibitor, Professor Adhomenen, Arguis Maxus, and a few others go well, maybe I can get back here tonight.

Yes. The trinity is confusing. Almost all phrases that are used to support the trinity are ones that, were they to appear in any other context, they would instantly be dismissed as figures of speech.

For whatever it is worth, I find very enlightening your exchange with JWI on this topic. I gain much from both of your views. There are no “typical” Witnesses here, in my view, except for a few that occasionally stray here, sometimes naively offer comments, thinking persons will be readjusted, and then leave shocked when they discover that no way will it happen. On a few occasions, I have chased them away—it is fine for them to stay here if they wish, but they should know the score before they do. They should not think that Witness, for example, is some misguided sister that they can help with but a kind word or two. Even you (though I have not seen it) can be expected to come in for criticism from some of the friends, who will confuse being knowledgeable about world affairs with violating neutrality. I’ll throw in a few teasers which vary in relevance—comment on them as you see fit. (Same goes for JWI) I value both. The “terrible trade deals” with China that Trump carries on about (and most of the U.S. business community agrees that they are indeed terrible from the US point of view) were based on the assumption that if China became prosperous, its own citizens would demand government not Communist and would lean to a more democratic model. Instead, the very opposite is happening. True or no? The reason that theft of intellectual property proves so intractable to negotiate is that the communist government and those molded by it really doesn’t understand the concept. True or no? I know almost nothing about Falun Gong. The first time I heard of them it was in connection with a subway gas attack in Japan, and from that point on figured that it was some wacky cult. Was that story a plant? The son of a local sister who recently died, and I was at her funeral, is the author of a book on Unit 731, a Japanese wartime atrocity roughly the equivalent of Hitler’s camps, from the same WWII era. The reports of organ harvesting mirror things documented there, though there it was more medical experiments than harvesting, like in some German Camps. https://www.tomsheepandgoats.com/2019/06/i-dont-think-i-have-ever-been-distracted-in-a-prayer-by-rounds-of-poor-jud-is-dead.html

Don’t tell me Vic Vomidog went down! If so, Anna will rejoice. She has said that she never liked him. And with good reason. Vic is a rotter through and through. He appears in my first book. Ivor E. Tower, who is actually a published religious scholar specializing in “new religions,” was kind enough to review “Tom Irregardless and Me.” Vic (the skunk) is included in his paragraph: “The book is about real people and issues, although the author has changed the names of rank-and-file members to preserve name anonymity. Tom Irregardless is an elder who uses the spurious word “irregardless” liberally in his Bible talks. Other characters include John Wheatnweeds, who hinders members from their house-to-house ministry by spending inordinate amounts of time expounding the text of the day before they set out. Then there is posh brandy-sipping Bernard Strawman, who receives frequent visits from the publishers, but continues to raise facile objections to their faith. Vic Vomidog, an apostate, repeatedly seeks to hamper their work. Other chapters are about real JW celebrities such as Prince, who is the subject of an entire chapter.” Vic has gone down, has he? Sometimes when the squabbling here becomes intense, I would wish that everyone was banned and the entire WorldNewsMedia forum simply be devoted to coverage of my books. I’ll speak to Admin about it.

All you bad people had better stop doing and saying bad things—that’s all I can say.

Yes. This is why people become Jehovah’s Witnesses. They see the sad history of “man dominating man to his injury” and respond to the good news of the kingdom, recognizing it as something better. it is an excellent point that you make.

Titan is tongue-in-cheek, not to be taken literally. I just meant that you express your points well.

Spin and counterspin, impossible to unravel to all but those with exhausive background knowledge and time. Mr Admin is at his best when he hosts these two titans hashing it out—Arauna and JWI, yet it seems unlikely even these will be able to persuade each other. Each has grabbed hold of the elephant in a different place—thus they argue differing appraisals of the beast. In the end, it may simply come down to considering the women. Or at least, that process works as well as any other. Mr. Wilson, for example, observes that: East coast girls are hip I really dig those styles they wear And the Southern girls with the way they talk They knock me out when I'm down there The Mid-West farmer's daughters really make you feel alright And the Northern girls with the way they kiss They keep their boyfriends warm at night However, Mr. McCartney would beg to differ. His experience leads him to maintain that: The Ukraine girls really knock me out, they leave the west behind. And Moscow girls make me sing and shout, that Georgia's always on my my my my my my my my my mind All that really matters in the end is the degree to which they will allow us to live in peace, worship our God, and announce the kingdom.

The faith groups that produce apostates are but a tiny sliver of the overall world population. You “think outside the box” when you leave the mainstream to enter one of those relatively tiny faith groups. You do not “think outside the box” when you leave one to rejoin the mainstream, any more than you “think outside the box” when you eat in the dining room, sleep in the bedroom, or shower in the bathroom. This is no more than a effort to penalize and ideally eliminate those who truly “think outside of the box,” those who would actually dare to be “no part of the world.” The situation should not be framed any other way. If I play my cards right, perhaps I can get coverage of my book right there on the Norwegian Saturday News: https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/917311

JTR may be Captain America, but he does have a point here. From what I have read he was pretty much that way himself—his excellence was in cunnning. During WWII, his son was captured by the Germans and he was given opportunity to ransom him. He declined the offer and the son died in a concentration camp.

I appreciate the concern expressed for Foreigner and the obvious good counsel. I did not “like” that comment itself so as not to draw you into the cabal in his eyes or anyone else’s. Your advice and demeanor reminded me also of Jesus’ description of the prodigal son’s older brother, the one apparently intended to picture the Pharisees. As such, Jesus could have portrayed him quite negatively, but he did not. He focused only on the positive. The older brother HAD been faithful to his father’s household, and if he had any negative traits (as he must have if he was to picture the Pharisees) Jesus did not mention them. It is an appeal to that group, and some took him up on it, as later “a great crowd of priests” became obedient to the faith. It offsets other times when the Lord ran them through the wringer, as he did in the 23rd chapter of Matthew, for example.

All of these brands were eventually discarded for Toms I apologize.

Nor have I ever seen one of Trump’s rallies, due to my usual objection about video. Of course, I have seen clips of them as presented on media, where they are carefully culled to make them appear hate-laden, yet even there, sometimes they reveal the wishes of the media more than that of the Pres—the media being primarily left of center, by over 90%.

Not me

Ha! JWI and I will ban him as well. Still, you have a point. Maybe JWI and I will ban you. THAT, I know, will never work, and thus my point will be proved—I am not the owner and cannot ban anyone, nor can JWI

I know it sounds as though shedding neutrality myself, but in the Pres vs Media war, it is not that I am pro-former. But I am anti-latter, I freely admit. If there is some new family-undermining meme or some new morality sure to turn society upside down, media instantly embraces it—they are all over it—so anything that gets them apoplectic cannot be all that bad. It’s the same with warring against business-as-usual government. (He wars with everyone!) To call him a bull in a china shop, one must accept the premise that the latter is a china shop. Junkyard dog in a junkyard works better. The focus should be, not on the subject (bull vs junkyard dog—there will be little disagreement there), but on the object of the preposition (china shop vs junkyard)—here there is disagreement. It took me awhile to notice it, but those who hang their hats and hearts on the BITE model (of Behavioral, Informational, Thought, and Emotional “control”) that they see everywhere and apply to Jehovah’s Witnesses in a heartbeat are almost always leftists. They are almost always people who think that government as usual IS a china shop, albeit a deeply flawed one. On the issue of sovereignty, they almost always are ones who advocate “government by Man,” and not “government by God.” It is very hard to shed all appearance of partisanship. For that reason, many of Jehovah’s Witnesses go further than they need to, in my opinion, and object if you even mention politics for fear of not staying neutral. Even Geoffrey Jackson, when he is lecturing on the importance of maintaining neutrality, acknowledges how hard it is to not think, “I hope that idiot does not come into power,” and it is impossible for me not to think what idiot he has in mind.

It is clear to me that there is only ONE WAY to convince you that we are not the owners and do not have that power, so...... “Right now, @JW Insider LET’S DO THIS THING! LET’S BAN HIM!” There. I do not expect to see him again, since JWI and I have banned him. If I do.....

The fact that you call them “hate rallies” suggests a shedding of neutrality.

Ah....perhaps it is you are being your normal wise guy. It is not from you that I fear that the slaying would come. In fact—did you not once say you had my back when opponents on Twitter lapsed into making threats? No. Frothing though you may be with regard to Christian leadership, I would feel perfect safe physically in your presence. Spiritually—I am not so sure.

What congregation do those sisters attend? It was a mistake I love that brand.

Ha! Without seeing this comment, I just made one very similar: If you hadn’t made that last stupid comparison, I even would have issued a “like” to your remark Still, if it should ever present one of those deals as with Moses descending from the mountain and people are ordered to separate, I’ll take his side before yours—screwy and cantankerous though he is. Alas, he will probably slay me. He doesn’t exactly respond well to reproof, much less to the rebuke that he routinely triggers. And “display of anger?”—tell me about it.

@admin probably knows of this. He keeps up, having more flesh in the game. I found this message while commenting on a blogspot blog: I wonder if there will in time appear such messages with regard to California. Or is it more complex than that?